Beginners conquer Edmonton’s winters one cross-country ski at a time

Otiena Ellwand, Edmonton Journal01.20.2014

Darren Zimmerman cross-country skis at Hawrelak Park despite the cold weather in Edmonton on Jan 4, 2013. The sport is starting to take off as people look for something to do in the wintertime.Bruce Edwards
/ Edmonton Journal

A cross-country skier slides through Kinsmen Park in Edmonton on Dec. 22, 2013. The sport is starting to take off as people look for something to do in the wintertime.John Lucas
/ Edmonton Journal

EDMONTON - Cross-country skiers know a thing or two about having fun in cold weather and others are catching on.

This year, the Edmonton Nordic Ski Club has seen tremendous growth in its adult ski programs. Over the past two months, 225 adults have registered for ski lessons. So much so, that the ski club had to increase its number of adults lesson programs to 38 from 14 to accommodate the number of registrants.

Now the struggle is finding enough instructors to keep up with demand, said Garry Stone, the ski club’s adult lesson co-ordinator.

“The sport is starting to take off on a number of different levels,” Stone said. “There’s a huge influx of people coming into the Edmonton area — some of them wondering, what do we do in the wintertime?”

Those people may be looking to big events like the Tour de Ski, cross-country’s equivalent of the Tour de France through Central Europe, the Sochi Winter Olympics or the Canadian Birkebeiner Ski Festival held in Edmonton every February, for clues.

At the Strathcona Wilderness Centre, about 25 kilometres east of Sherwood Park, the number of children in cross-country ski lessons has doubled since last year, said Jean Funk, the centre’s supervisor.

She credits the increase in popularity to the long winter season that started in November, the good quality snow and weather conditions, and state-of-the-art equipment. On one recent Friday, the centre was buzzing with everyone from families to high-calibre fitness skiers.

Justine Leszczynski, 38, originally from New Zealand, started cross-country skiing this season. She jokes she got “forced” into it by her Canadian-born husband and two children, all avid skiers themselves.

“This year, we wanted to do more stuff as a family that was affordable, instead of going downhill skiing and having to buy lift tickets all the time,” she said.

She also realized it was time to come to grips with Edmonton winters.

“I’ve kind of fought it for the last few years, but this is where we live right now so I might as well learn it and enjoy it.”

The lessons she took through the Edmonton Nordic Ski Club gave her the confidence and skills she needed.

“At first I was terrified. I’m just not comfortable in snow. I thought I better take lessons and I’m so glad that I did,” she said. It was encouraging to see the diversity of people at her lessons — that anyone can do it.

It also helps that it’s a relatively affordable sport — a beginner kit including boots, skis and poles goes for $250 to $350 at Mountain Equipment Co-op — and it can be done in Edmonton’s backyard.

Much of the river valley trail system is plowed and maintained through the winter as part of the winter city strategy, including 55 km of groomed cross-country ski terrain.

Darrell Reid, crew supervisor for river valley trail operations, said that’s about six km more cross country trail than last season.

“We’d like as many people out in the winter on the trails as we see in the summer,” he said.

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